streakeagle

The team working on YAP has been allowed to post their progress and downloads on the official YAP site. Go here for the latest files and news: YANKEE AIR PIRATE

The AI aircraft of DCS were originally a holdover from LOMAC/Flaming Cliffs... which did not have the MiG-21 at all! Most newer AI aircraft are variants of new flyable aircraft. i.e. the MiG-21bis. The MiG-17 does not exist yet, but the MiG-15bis does a fair job of standing in for the MiG-17. For Russians/USSR there is the MiG-15bis, MiG-19P, MiG-21bis, MiG-23MLD, MiG-25PD, MiG-25RBT, MiG-27K, MiG-29A, MiG-29G (luftwaffe), MiG-29K, MiG-29S, MiG-31, Su-17M4, Su-24M, Su-24MR, Su-25, Su-25T, Su-25TM, Su-27, Su-30, Su-33, Su-39, Il-76MD, Il-78M, Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS, Tu-142, and Tu-160. Player flyable MiG-17 and MiG-23MLA are supposedly on the way, no way to know when if ever they will be finished/released.

The MiG-19 was the real UFO: power-to weight with resulting climb, acceleration, and sustained turn performance was outstanding, turning ability almost as good as a MiG-17 and still has guns. The MiG-21 varies with the particular model. The early MiG-21F-13 is a turn fighter, but a little short on power/climb. The PF/PFMA series traded weight for radar, so not as sporty as the F-13. The S/SM added power but at the cost of weight. The final MiG-21bis had almost as much power/acceleration as an F-16, but its weight increase and center of gravity change killed its agility and somewhat degraded its previously pleasant handling characteristics. The hard wing F-4s, (all of them except the F-4E and F-4F, and early F-4Es were hard wing, too), were energy fighters vs turn fighting MiG-21F-13. The slatted F-4Es and F-4Fs were turn fighters against the energy fighting MiG-21bis. A gun-armed slatted F-4E/F-4F is the best MiG killer of them all (though a slatted F-4S without the gun with later AIM-9H/L/M missiles and a more advanced radar is possibly better). WVR, you have to go high and see if you can get the MiG-17 to stall out and/or circle in a way that gives you a diving shot. When Duke Cunnigham took on a MiG-17 in the vertical, he nearly lost: he would outclimb the MIG-17 providing a gunshot opportunity. He only won once the MiG tried to extend and go home. MiGs don't have much fuel. Run them out and make them retreat, which means using afterburner as little as possible. But in a 1 vs many, sooner or later one may give you a shot, you just have to keep an eye on your tail and use speed/climb to avoid getting shot. In a many vs many, you get kills by attacking MiGs that are getting behind your wingmen. It is a race against time: can you get a shot on the MiG before the MiG shoots your wingman down, and can you shoot without accidently killing your wingman. The game allows AI to see 360 degrees to keep them from being stupid, so you can't exploit the worst features of the MiGs, particularly the MiG-21 after the F-13: horrible view form the cockpit. You would otherwise be able to get in a blind spot and they wouldn't know which direction to go or how hard to pull. If you have AIM-7s there are two ways to use them: the AIM-7E is works best in a head on. You can use you power/speed to extend, the reverse for a head on AIM-7 shot. You have to learn how long to extend before reversing. This only works well against the MiG-17 which is much slower and has no missiles. The AIM-7E2 is better used as a stern chase dogfight missile. It is more effective than the AIM-9B, AIM-9E, and in my opinion even the AIM-9J. Whereas a naval F-4B/F-4J in Vietnam should have at least the AIM-9D, better yet the AIM-9G (possibly the AIM-9H, but I don't know if any were actually carried and fired before the air war ended). The AIM-9D/G/H makes the Naval F-4s better than an F-4C/D with AIM-9B/E/J. The effective envelope for the AIM-9G/H is very generous, so you can take some pretty difficult shots using vertical/stall tactics. The hardest fights are F-4B/C/D hard wings with earlier missiles. F-4Ds eventually did well with AIM-7s in 1972. F-4Es rarely used their guns, but a MiG-19 was downed at supersonic speed, which is an unrivalled record. F-4Js with AIM-9Gs clobbered MiG-17s. F-4Ds and F-4Es with AIM-7E2 did well in stern chases. But when you read about real Vietnam air combat, most fights ended with no kills and usually with no hits. But in 1972, with better training and better weapons, the Navy killed everything that crossed its path primarily with AIM-9Gs. After getting trounced on May 10, 1972, the MiG-17 would never been intentionally used to intercept F-4s, only for training. 1 vs 1, a hard wing F-4 has to be very patient against a MiG-21MF (essentially an export MiG-21SM). If you can't get a shot, you may have to disengage. But again, the MiG-21 has much less fuel endurance/range and in reality the F-4s had tankers available. So the best tactic is to avoid getting tailed/shot until the MiG-21 tries to flee due to low fuel. The slatted F-4E and F-4F is roughly even with the MiG-21SM/MiG-21MF/MiG-21bis. The F-4 should actually turn a little better if the flight models were realistic. In reality, MiG-21s of the F-13/PF/PFM/PFMA series had issues with engine limits at low altitudes. Even hard wing F-4s outperformed the early MiG-21s at low altitude. Unfortunately, in 1972, the F-4 pilots learned that the MiG-21MF had enough power to catch up to F-4s trying to extend as sea level. Try changing the AI difficulty level. I think enemy aircraft can be set to Easy, Normal, Hard. Normal provides more realistic flight behavior. AI doesn't use player flight models, so AI aircraft are often more capable than the same aircraft flown by players. Setting them to Normal gets results close to reality.

DCS has come so far since the A-10C and Ka-50. While development continues at an ever slow, but steady pace, something that may never be fixed is the cost-effectiveness of releasing variants of any one particular aircraft. Typically, the final, best variant is modeled, and you miss out on all the developments from initial service to the final variant. Case in point, MiG-21. The MiG-21F-13 is very different from the MiG-21 PF/PFMA series, then comes the big jump to the S/SM series, and finally, the bis. But all you get for DCS is the bis. There are some exceptions, but the resources it takes to make even a minor variant is more than people are willing to pay. So developers are better off making unique aircraft rather recycling variants of an already released aircraft. ED is biased towards modern and WW2, so it takes 3rd party developers to provide 1950s-1980s aircraft and variants. DCS development is difficult: lots of time and effort and ED's contract requirements for licensing/support. At least some are stepping up to the plate to try even though some of have failed. Hopefully, the F-100D won't be in development forever and will be accurately modeled with few bugs. There is no such thing as a DCS module with no bugs.

Most modern medium and long range missiles use a two-stage engine: during boost phase, a short strong burst of power is used to get up to speed, then during the sustain phase, the output of the engine is much weaker to allow the engine to burn longer to increase range. So, these ini settings allow you to try to replicate this process. The sustainer is just strong enough to try to maintain the speed of the missile while flying straight. Once the sustainer burns out, the missile is gliding unpowered. Older missiles and short range missiles tend to use a short, strong single boost phase, then coast until they run out of speed.

The DCS plane set keeps getting closer to the SFP1/WoX/SF2 series :) The Kfir is coming! Official News 2022 - Page 2 - Official Updates - ED Forums (dcs.world)

The F2H-2 model is quite nice, too. A very accurate shape and you should be able to find updates to the ini files and skin packs on this website supporting Korean Air War 2.

I have short chats with Julhelm fairly often, he keeps me posted with screenshots of his current projects. He stays busy with 3d modeling work and has a wife and kid, so he is short on free time for CombatAce/SF2.

I have all of the Razbam SFP1/WoX/SF2 aircraft payware mods. I believe they are available for purchase again on the new website. The only problems they cause are with shadows, which can only be solved by turning them off. I generally prefer the Razbam 3d models and cockpits to any others available, even some of the more recent releases. Most of the releases were for SFP1/WoX, but aside from the shadow problem, work fine with SF2. I think the F-102 was the only one specifically made for SF2. There are some files available here on CombatAce to improve/revise them. As most people still flying SF2 don't have the Razbam releases, it is easier to use any/all freeware public releases for compatibility with missions/campaigns made in recent history and given the age of the sim, it makes it questionable to spend money on such old, obsolete software. At one point Razbam intended to provide an update to fix the shadow problems for SF2, but they never followed through. I can't blame them as even TK abandoned SF2 for greener pastures.

If you didn't already know, the Mirage F1 has been released for early access purchase and download. DCS: Mirage F-1 (digitalcombatsimulator.com) DCS World continues to expand its plane set in the direction of the Strike Fighters series. The early F-14A and F-4E may be released before the end of the year. The MiG-17, MiG-23MLA, F-8J, and A-7E are still somewhere over the horizon.

It is hard for me to advocate buying Third Wire products from the website if TK can't be reached to resolve technical issues. He is still posting tweets on holidays, so I know he isn't completely gone. I have no idea why we hasn't responded to this problem, but it is a bad omen.

$100 to rule them all :P Unless you are really strapped for cash, the cost-effectiveness of owning every single game, every single expansion pack, and every single DLC is worth the $100 if you love this series. On the flip side, the owner of the website just purchased the $100 package, but didn't get the necessary downlink email and hasn't been able to get TK to respond. So, I don't know how well the Third Wire online shop is working right now.

Hopefully you get it all sorted out quickly, the all-in-one is a great deal. Makes life very easy.

TK is still active. There is also a discord channel, but I never see him post there. He is also on facebook. He usually responds to people having technical difficulties, so make sure your email is throwing his replies in the junk category.

The original free mod was one of the best ones available. I can't wait for it to be an official module.

By the numbers written in the books, the MiG-19 had power and agility. It had guns, missiles, and a decent bubble canopy. It should have been the dominant fighter until the next generation F-15/F-16 fighters entered service. North Vietnam was given access to the MiG-17, Chinese variants of the MiG-19 (not so explosive as the early Russian production versions), and various versions of the MiG-21. They preferred the MiG-21. Why? Because the MiG-19 was harder to maintain and the versions they had didn't support missiles until after the Vietnam War ended. With a relatively low number of aircraft available, the VPAF preferred high speed hit and run tactics with missiles. The MiG-21 was the perfect fit for their preferred tactics. It was certainly faster than the MiG-19 and the later MF version was even a bit more powerful than the MiG-19. Apparently, the MiG-19 was also more challenging to maintain. The MiG-21's single engine was more reliable as well as easier to maintain. Sometimes, brochure performance data doesn't quite tell the whole story.

Bump for the anniversary of May 10, 1972.

While poking around looking for certain F-4 info, I stumbled on to a crew chief's photos of Major Lodge's F-4 Phantom just before he was shot down on May 10, 1972. They can be found here: https://plus.google.com/photos/116952585503241705522/albums/5756583234734344785?sqi&sqsi Upon close inspection, I saw something odd: instead of 4 x AIM-9s, there were 2 x AIM-4s. As of May 10, 1972, F-4Ds were still carrying AIM-4 Falcons while acting as the primary CAP for the largest air activity of the entire war! No wonder the majority of USAF F-4 kills were with AIM-7s. On top of that, I noticed ECM pods in two locations: ALQ-101 in the front left Sparrow well and ALQ-71 on the left inner plyon under an AIM-4. I would have guessed that they would only being carrying two AIM-7s in the rear wells (as was common since a centerline tank prevents launching the forward Sparrows), but per Roger Locher, Major Lodge took three AIM-7 shots on May 10. So for those wanting to recreate this legendary fight where a dedicated CAP of 4xF-4Ds engaged 2-4xMiG-21s (the VPAF claims 2, the USAF claims 4) and 4xJ-6(MiG-19S)s, the loadouts is: 2xAIM-4 (one to the inside of each inner wing pylon), ALQ-71 pod on left inner wing pylon, ALQ-101 in forward left AIM-7 bay, and 3xAIM-7 in remaining AIM-7 bays. I have been unable to confirm the fuel tank loadout, but it was probably 2 x wing tanks + centerline. Google Plus went away, but fortunately, I saved Joey Hill's great photos of F-4D 65-0784.

I was sad to see the F-4 being replaced at MacDill by the F-16A starting in 1979. I am sad again as I watch the F-4's replacement reach its sunset.

I am sorry I didn't see your question sooner. The answer surprised me: it isn't available anymore. I went to the Third Wire online store and neither Wings Over Israel or the expansion pack is for sale any more.

By the time this was released, SF2 was in full swing. This was released late, after SF2I. It shared many features with SF2I including some of the planeset. However, it was released and then abandoned. TK had promised to release this, and made good on his word. But unlike the past, there would be no patches despite some bugs. If you wanted to see Wings Over Israel with the Expansion Pack done more correctly and completely, you needed to buy SF2I. So the Wings Over Israel Expansion Pack faded into history with almost no one buying it except die hard Third Wire fan bois like myself that wanted to see TK succeed and continue improving the SF series. I am sure I posted on some forum about this some time ago... but this version of the SFP1/WoX series is in many ways the most advanced and best, just a shade short of the early SF2 releases. To minimize duplication of effort, TK patched WoI up to nearly an SF2 standard so he didn't need to make duplicate 3d models of aircraft. What this means is that up to a certain SF2 version, the SF2 3d models/textures can be imported into WoI with the Expansion pack. While the aircraft data ini files won't work without some editing to compensate for differences in the electronic warfare modeling (especially the RWR), the much improved stock cockpits and external models that reflect all the subtle variants of the F-4 are a huge step up for SFP1/WoX veterans. But with SF2 available, why would anyone bother trying to retrofit WoI/XP1 with SF2 aircraft? In a word, multiplayer! Not only does WoI support SF2 models/textures, but it has many improvements that were developed for SF2. One is much better dogfight AI that can be both very aggressive and very defensive compared to most previous versions of SFP1/WoX. Also, terrain and ECM on radar and radar homing missiles are modeled in a more detailed and realistic manner. One of the most obvious things in WOI/XP1 is that missile reliability is the same or worse than earlier SFP1/WoX patch revisions and radically different than what you will experience playing the final patch revision of the final SF2 series game release: SF2NA. Enemy AI will aggressively "beam" you to break radar locks and evade AIM-7 Sparrows. Hitting anything other than an oblivious, straight and high flying target with a Sparrow takes patience and luck very much reflecting real life data. So what would be cool to have but would take a tremendous amount of work is trying to edit/add files as necessary to make WoI/XP1 as close to an SF2 install as possible in terms of plane set, weapons, terrains, and campaigns. At the end, the game wouldn't be too much different from the early revisions of SF2, but would be perfect for the most state of the art and diverse multplayer experience possible in the entire SFP1/WoX/SF2 series.

I just flew SF2 Korea in my favorite Razbam F2H-2 Banshee. I am using the Reverb G2 with VorpX and the OpenXR driver option. The experience still amazes me: locked at 90 fps with the great SF2 Korea mod terrain and dogfighting MiG-15s. After killing the MiGs, I went sightseeing at tree top level and 300-400 kts IAS. What a great view with a sense of speed and altitude. I primarily fly DCS World at this point, but SF2 is pretty darn good with high-resolution VR pegged at max frame rate with max graphics quality settings.

When I was younger, I had the patience to use hex editors to analyze exe and dll files. I was tired of putting a CDROM in to load a game and used a tool to step through the code to find where the cdrom check occurred. I used a hex editor to change the command to jump to the address used when the CDROM check was passed. I am not that determined anymore. I wait for someone else to solve my game problems or live with the issue at hand. Back then, I did scan the avionics DLLs looking for all of the possible functions in case some existed that had not been utilized. But Third Wire was very efficient, generally making the bare minimum required to support the aircraft released.

Unfortunately, the technology DLLs were very specific to the aircraft they were intended to support. As Third Wire never intentionally released flyable red side aircraft with cockpits, the DLLs needed to support red side avionics don't exist. I haven't messed with the HUD dll in a long time, but I recall from playing with the MiG-23 parameters that there isn't too much you can change: either the function you need exists and works the way you need it to, or it doesn't. To the best of my knowledge, no one has tried to produce modified DLL files, which would be an interesting possibility if someone had the skills.